A Powerful Crew
by 99 luffy
Summary: THIS IS NOT A YAOI now that being said what would have happened if Aizen had changed his plans just a little bit, and dragon had taken a deeper interest in his sons dream. Well read and find out. Rated T for violence and blood. Also Luffy will be a little smarter.
1. Chapter 1

This story takes place in the middle of the winter war with Aizen. Also Starrk can release his resurrecion on his own and has no need of his other half/fraccion lilinette. Thus she will not be in this story because I'm not a fan of her mouth.

A Powerful Crew

On a mysterious island on the grand line, in a dark room three people looked at each other one had a big head that was almost to comical to look at, another one to his left looked like a bear because of his body build added to the fact that he wore a hat with ears on it. The last one though looked like just a regular man with a little bit of an intimidating aura around him, even though he did have a huge grin plastered on his face.

So My boys going to be the next pirate king is he well we had better fix that right away can't let him get started without having a proper crew now can I boys." Said the small man as he just sat there chuckling as he finished speaking. "Alright Kuma I want you to go find him a crew that will make him a proper pirate king I don't care how long it takes you or if you have to go across the universe to find them do it for me ok." Then he turned to the man with the big head and said "Ivan I want you to get Garp to teach Luffy about Haki in all three of its forms this way he can control his power and his crew also let him know that Kuma will be gone from any and all shichibukai meetings for a while."

"Yes Dragon san I will do as you say" said the bear guy as he turned and left the room to go find good men to follow his leaders son into battle against the world government.

With this the smallest of the three turned to go only to stop when the man with the large head said Dragon san your father said that he never wanted to see me again after he found out that I cheated him at cards last time. Also Kuma is kind of important to the government right now since they are almost finished with his upgrades."

The small man didn't even turn around as he said "To the first problem pay Garp back the money you owe him and then tell him what I told you too. To the second problem I don't even care just so long as I can open the future up for my son and make it just a little easier for him to deal with. Just as I want to make the world a better place for all future generations by taking out the government. Besides the government can wait a while to release their new toys on the world."

"Yes Dragon san" replied Ivankov the king of Okama Land. As he finished speaking though he realized that he was already speaking to thin air as his leader the legendary revolutionary Monkey D. Dragon, leader of all the revolutionaries, had already left him without saying another word.

In Hueco Mundo on top of las Noches

The hollow Ichigo screamed out loud for the whole world of Las Noches to hear. Everyone within ten miles of the building heard his scream and felt the spiritual pressure he was giving off. Many who were not there to see him in this moment were still completely surprised. Aizen in his room just smiled as he felt the pressure building knowing that Kurosaki could still get stronger he just needed to push him a little more. With that thought in mind he summoned forth several of his arrancar even Grimmjow who had already been beaten.

As Grimmjow showed up he noticed that he wasn't the only one that had been summoned to Aizen's room. Already in the room sat Starrk, the primera espada and Tia Halibel the tercera espada. Both looked at him in complete and utter carelessness, as if he wasn't even worth the effort of punishment in the state he was currently in. this of course only helped his humiliated feeling grow even larger as he looked to where Aizen sat with both Gin and Tousen standing behind him as guards to the meeting that they were currently in. as he sat down at his normal seat Aizen looked at him and said "Well I told you not to fight him, but you didn't listen now look at the state you're in barely able to even lift a finger in your own defense. Oh well I have an easy job for the three of you it was just noted that Ichigo Kurosaki was killed by Ulquiorra on the roof however what is not known is that he was brought back from the dead as a hollow so powerful that even in his second release form Ulquiorra is being beaten quite badly. Now what I need is for you three to split up and find his friends throughout Las Noches and take them to where he is currently running amuck on the roof then you are to help Ulquiorra fight off Ichigo Kurosaki. Also you are Starrk are to go to the world of the living and get Urahara Kisuke and take him to the roof personally as well. Already two of Kurosaki's friends are on the roof to help him out in his fight against Ulquiorra so please do hurry because time is of the essence in this fight unless you all want to lose a very valuable comrade. Now good bye."

With that being said all three espada went about what they were supposed to do. Grimmjow headed straight for Chad who was still knocked out on the ground from when Noitra hit him and so he didn't put up even a small fight as he was taken away. Renji and Rukia on the other hand were just finishing the fight they had against Rudborn who died as soon as the tercera espada showed up. Looking at them both Halibel just sonido'd behind them while they just stared at where she had been this was quickly followed up with a karate chop to the back of both of their necks effectively knocking them both out cold. She then shot off for the roof where the spiritual pressure was starting to get really heavy and very frightening.

Starrk on the other hand was having one of the worst days of his life because as soon as he got to the living world he was confronted with all of the remaining captains and vice-captains that were not already in las noches fighting. Seeing this he didn't even hesitate for a second as he released his resurrecion charged forward at an amazing speed surprising everyone around him as he charged forward and grabbed Urahara and immediately opened a garganta to get away. Turning around Starrk said in an easy voice that caught everyone's attention as they were all charging after him. "_CERO METRALLETA_" everyone started dodging as best they could though not all of them could get away without getting hurt by the almost completely random cero's. With all of the soul reapers occupied Starrk started through his garganta which let him out right on to the roof of las noches.

When he arrived there Starrk found himself showing up just as Ichigo in his hollowfied form shot a cero from his horns that completely obliterated Ulquiorra's own cero. So shocked was he that he completely forgot that keep his hold on Urahara who finally made a move drawing his sword Benihime and cut Starrk shallowly across his chest to drive him back. This plan of course worked as Starrk jumped away from Kisuke about fifteen feet and pointed his gun straight at him.

Just then he saw Halibel show up with two other soul reaper's under her arms. Turning to Starrk she said "I will go help Ulquiorra san as he fights Kurosaki. It should be interesting." She then proceeded to drop the two soul reapers on to the ground causing them to fall in an unceremonious heap at her feet. This also caused both of the soul reapers to wake up just in time to see Grimmjow show up caring Chad.

What Grimmjow didn't realize was that Chad had woken up and had only not moved do to the fact that he realized that he was heading in the direction that Ichigo and his friends were either at or headed to. Unfortunately for Grimmjow though as soon as they landed Chad used his left arms new ability to hit Grimmjow right in his jaw sending him flying away from him and straight into both Rukia and Renji. As they all got up Grimmjow spat up some blood and screamed "You damn punk how dare you throw a cheap shot at me, at least have the decency to fight me in a fair fight."

Rukia who was standing up right to Grimmjow's left she said so now we have to fight fair when you yourself will use anything on the battle field to your advantage? Who are you to decide that we can't fight like you even if we still refuse to use those on the battle field that are fighting other people? Oh yes we all know how you used Orihime and Neliel to get a cheap shot in on Ichigo you coward. He told us about his fight with you when he came and tried to get up the tower to get Orihime back from Aizen.

Grimmjow grimaced at this news and turned back to her and said "So that was a fight between two men who were just doing their best to kill each other all I did was use a strategy."

All of a sudden there was a pressure spike from behind him and as he turned around to see what had happened only to receive a cero like blast from Renji's bankai. This sent Grimmjow straight back away from all three of them and towards Orihime who had seen everything.

Grimmjow grabbed his Zanpakutou from his sheath, and held steady as he started to release his resurrecion from it so that he could finish this fight as fast as he could so that he could go help Starrk. However this was not to be as his sword did not release because he was still to hurt from his fight with Ichigo early that day. Cursing his luck he looked straight at the three of them and prepared to fight them all in his current condition.

Halibel on the other hand could and had already been forced to release her resurrecion so that she wouldn't be killed by the monster that the substitute soul reaper had been turned into. She looked over towards her fellow espada and saw that she barely recognized Ulquiorra either. "When did you learn that little trick and when were you going to tell the rest of us how to get to that level?" she asked him

"I learned it a few years ago and as for why I didn't show you all well that would be because I haven't told anyone before not even Aizen sama." In fact if this guy was not so strong I would have finished this and no one would be any the wiser as to me having it thus I'm going to ask that you, Grimmjow, and Starrk, continue to keep this secret for me.

Then it happened out of nowhere a giant man that was the size of Yammy appeared out of nowhere everyone stopped and looked at him. Even the hollowfied Ichigo that was nothing more than a mindless berserker stopped to stare at the large man who for some reason had a hat on his head that had ears of its own. Urahara being the sophisticated man that he was calmly walked forward toward the man and said excuse me large sir, may I ask what you are doing here this is not the place for a human to just stand after all this is a war zone. The man looked around at all of them and said "Finally I have found a place where there are good people who are not just fighting to kill each other, but each side fighting for a cause that they both believe is right. Tell me if you had a common enemy would you fight side by side with one another so that both could survive rather than both being destroyed?"

Urahara looked at the man and said "What kind of enemy would that be that it could take on those of us that are here? We are undoubtedly amongst the strongest people from our respective worlds."

Without missing a beat the man looked at them and said "I would be the enemy and the cost of losing would be that everyone here would end up on another planet."

This caused several there to look a little closer at the man in front of them. Sure he didn't look like much, and he didn't even have that much spiritual pressure, but still everyone there realized that his threat was not an idle one. "Tell me where would you want to go for a vacation if you could go anywhere the man said as he walked up to Urahara?" before Urahara could answer though the man brought his hand down on him and he disappeared.

In a comical display everyone's jaw dropped to the ground, except for Ulquiorra whose eyes just grew larger than they ever had before in his life as either a hollow or an arrancar. If this wasn't enough though the bear said he lost and then turned towards Starrk and said "This will be your last chance if you were to go for a vacation where would you want to go?

Starrk immediately sonidoed behind this weird freak and shot one of his cero's at his back, but the man put his hand up in front of him, and deflected Starrks cero at Halibel who was now trying to use one of her Zanpakutou's abilities at the monster. The cero took her by surprise again and knocked her to the ground where she looked up just in time to see the bear hit Starrk with the palm of his hand, and Starrk disappear just like Urahara had a moment ago.

However before anyone did anything to him the bear guy appeared in front of Halibel and hit her as well. She was gone before anyone knew she was gone.

Then the bear guy turned towards Orihime and Uryu. Without warning he was in front of both of them and just looked at Uryu who now stood in front of Orihime in a very defensive way, however because of the injuries that he had received from his previous battles he could do little more than watch as the bear guy hit him with his open palm.

Orihime was shocked not that Uryu had stood up for her, but that she wasn't able to do anything to help. What no one had seen was that she had tried shielding Uryu from the blast with her Santen Kesshun, but the bear man had simply broken right through the middle as though he was hitting a piece of glass with a sledge hammer. That's when the bear hit her as well and she disappeared.

Rukia, Renji, Chad, and Grimmjow all looked at the bear in fear, this man had without even really trying launched five people, three of which were known to be incredibly strong while another one was known to be incredibly smart when it came to fighting, away to who knew where and it didn't look like he was slowing down anytime soon either as he turned next to their little group.

This stopped however when the hollowfied Ichigo, and fully released Ulquiorra jumped in front of him both looking like they were ready for a fight. "Where did you send those people trash?" said Ulquiorra as he stared at the bear.

"I sent them where I'm going to send you now." replied the man that those remaining could barely recognize as human anymore. With his statement declared acted like he was hitting the air in front a few seconds later Ulquiorra and Chad who was consequently standing behind him both grabbed their stomachs as they fell to the ground in pain The Hollowfied Ichigo charged at the bear man suddenly and swung his sword straight for his neck. The man replied by simply putting his hand up in much the same fashion he had when he knocked Starrks cero away with the palm of his hand, and just like Starrks cero Ichigo's sword was sent flying away and by attachment Ichigo was as well. Ulquiorra was up by this point, and looked straight at that man as he said please stay where you are now. Ulquiorra's hands came together in front of his body and those that were left noticed that a glowing green light started to form in between them, he then pulled his hands apart and a large lance appeared in his hands. Looking back to where the strange man was walking towards him he pulled his arm back and said I would rather this not go off anywhere near me when this hits so if you would please disappear. Ulquiorra then threw his lance straight at him and said Lanza del relampago. As it went at him the man stopped and just watched as it slid right by his head taking a small piece out of his hat. "Tch I see the attack is so powerful I barely have control over it myself. All of a sudden miles away from las noches a massive explosion was seen ripping the continuous night of Hueco Mundo apart.

Ulquiorra then put his hands together again and created another one of his lances behind him Renji screamed "He can make more than one of those things?! What the Hell?" Rukia just said "Everyone get yourselves ready if this goes badly we could all be in serious trouble!" with that said everyone started calling out their best attacks and launching them at the bear man at the same time. Ulquiorra even joined them.

Gran Rey Cero Grimmjow called out as he launched his attack for the stranger, Lanza del Relampago Ulquiorra repeated, la Muerte Chad said quietly as he threw a punch with his left arm, Hikotsu Taiho Renji yelled, Some no mai, tsukishiro Rukia said as she punctured the ground four times and launched a large avalanche of snow and ice directly at the bear man.

What none of them had noticed was that their opponent was calling out an attack while they all were as well Ursus Shock he said as he released a small paw shaped bubble right at them only for it to grow to exponential proportions as it flew out knocking all the combined attacks heading straight for him away, and knocking everyone but Ulquiorra either out or to the ground. He then walked up to the group as those that were still awake tried to find the strength to fight this man. Unfortunately the only ones awake were Ulquiorra, Renji, and Grimmjow, and of those three only Ulquiorra was left in any kind of fighting order.

All of a sudden the man disappeared from their eye sight only to reappear right behind both Grimmjow and Renji both of who had managed to stand back up, but just barely. Neither of them could do anything as he launched one of his hands at both of them sending both of them flying away to wherever all the others had been sent.

Ulquiorra just gave him his normal look void of all emotion as he said "Ok trash what's your name and how did you know to send away the first three you hit rather than any of us that you have left behind?"

"My name" replied the man "is Bartholomew Kuma and I was sent to this place to get strong men who could fight, but who also weren't cruel to those they fought or at the least not too much. As for how I knew who to get rid of first well I'm sure you and all of your companions will learn that and many other tricks to the land I'm sending or have sent you all too, so don't worry you will be reunited with your friends soon enough." As he finished speaking he turned around and hit both Rukia and Chad with that opened palm technique of his.

"How do you do that? I've never seen someone make someone disappear by just touching them before."

"Of course you haven't this technique was developed by me and can only be done by someone who has eaten the paw paw fruit from my home world, which you will know more of soon since you will be going there soon. Also be cautious once you get there cause if you're not you will be killed consider this training to make you stronger for the fights to come."

"Enough talking trash it's time to finish this!" replied Ulquiorra as he summoned forth another Lanza Del Relampago and used sonido to get behind Kuma and struck out with his lance right at the man's back. However the man turned around as did this and caught the attack in his hand. Ulquiorra's eyes almost bugged out of his head at this as he said "What impossible with your bare hand alone!"

Then he noticed that the still Hollowfied Ichigo was flying back at them at full speed charging a cero between his horns as he came, unfortunately his moment of distraction cost him as he was hit by the man's palm directly to his chest. The last thing he saw before he disappeared was Ichigo releasing his cero and it completely encompassing his opponent who had been more focused on Ulquiorra at that moment.

As the torrent of spiritual power finished washing over him Bartholomew Kuma looked over to where Ichigo was currently standing with his sword in his hand staring right back at him. "That was a very impressive attack young man especially considering that it actually hit me Kuma said." Then he fell to his knees as he sparks started flying out from all around him. the Hollowfied Ichigo took this as his best opportunity to attack his opponent and to finish this battle quickly so that he could go down to finish off all of those in the building that he was fighting on. However as he used sonido to get behind his opponent, the other man's hand shot out and launched a paw shaped bubble right into his face shattering his mask in the process. Caught by surprise Ichigo could do nothing more than look around for his friends. Noticing that none of his friends or enemies for that matter were there he looked down at his feet only to notice the other man starting to get up from where he had fallen. "Hey do you know where all of my friends are?" Ichigo asked as the man finished.

"Yes" replied the man as he put his hand own on Ichigo's shoulder only for Ichigo to lose sight of him as he was repelled away from him at an unbelievable rate. Sadly the hit was so strong and unexpected that Ichigo was knocked out before he even lost sight of the man in front of him.

Bartholomew Kuma sighed "wow they are some seriously hard hitters if any more of their attacks had hit me I probably would have died" he thought. He then turned around and hit himself in the stomach so that he flew away in the same direction as all the people he had just launched.

_Alright there it is chapter one if anyone has any questions I would like to hear them also for anyone that has suggestions for pairings or not I would like to hear those as well. _

_**I only respond to pm's since I never seem to get on in time to check the reviews people send me.**_

_Please review and tell me what you think of the story people._


	2. Here There be Pirates

Well here is chapter 2 I don't know about you all, but I'm really excited about this story. So I'm thinking about pairs for the story and this is how they are going to work out I think. However I am willing to listen to input. 1st Ichigo x Halibel, 2nd Luffy x Nami, 3rd Zoro x Robin, 4th Ulquiorra x Orihime, 5th Rukia Renji of course most everything will be an insinuation when it comes to romance since there are so many couples, but that's not what the story is focused on.

**Beyond this point is important material**

**So with that being said I'm going to add two people to Luffy's crew from his world just so that when they get to Saobody archipelago the numbers will be the same between both the one piece characters and the bleach characters. Thus saying I have already picked Bellamy as one of those to go, However I can't think of a second person so I'm going to have poll on who should end up with the straw hats before they reach Saobody. **

So here are your choices

Sarquiss

Princess Vivi

Enel the god wannabe

Paulie from the Water Seven Arc

Fill in with your own OC or your own choice

So let me know who you guys want to see ride with the Straw Hats.

THOUGHT:_ HE'S MADE OF RUBBER_

And on with chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2**

**HERE THERE BE PIRATES**

On an island in the Grand Line

"Hey Luffy what the hell do you think you're doing were supposed to be looking for a bird so that we can find our way south to the knock upstream thingy remember said Chopper as he looked to Luffy who was trying to capture a beetle on the ground.

After a few minutes though both noticed that there were tons of bugs all over the place, and that these bugs seemed more or less hostile towards them as they looked for the south bird so that they could get to the knock upstream the next day. The next moment though things got even worse as a large beehive fell down right in front of where they were standing.

"AAAAHHHH they both screamed as they looked started running away from the swarm of angry looking bees that was flying as fast as they could towards Luffy and chopper with major killing intent.

After a while of this happening to the Luffy and Chopper they both gave up and headed back to the clearing where they had both started out from with their companions the other members of Luffy's pirate crew the Straw Hat Pirates.

When they got there they saw that they were the only ones left who had yet to actually show back up. Walking into the clearing Luffy said "Well what happened to you guys did anyone get the bird?"

"No" replied Zoro who had been in a group with Robin.

"No" replied Nami who had been in a group with both Usopp and Zoro.

"Well we have to get one so who wants to go back in there with me?" Luffy asked.

All of a sudden they all heard the sound that had been haunting them the entire time they had been in the forest. Looking up they all saw the very bird they had been trying to catch, and by extension the very bird that had been foiling them in their attempts. Chopper who just happened to be a reindeer that had eaten the hito hito no mi (the human human fruit) and could now turn into a human thx to the powers it gave. Looking back to his companions he said "The bird asked if we found what we were hunting for?"

All of a sudden they all got a surprise when they saw two hands pop out of its side and start to wrap around the animal. In reaction to this event the entire crew turned to their newest crewmate Nico Robin. Smiling she said "All I need to do is see it and I can grab it." This of course was another ability given by the hana hana no mi or the bloom bloom fruit.

As the bird dropped from the tree Luffy smiled and said "Well at least we've got the bird now. Let's head back to the house with the diamond headed man and the monkeys." Just then however a shooting star flew right over the clearing that they were all sitting in at that moment. To add to everyone's amazement though another one went by, and then another, and then another, and even those were followed by more. The shooting stars continued to fly by amazing everyone until in the end 11 had flown by in total. "Wow that was amazing can you all believe this they looked and sounded like they were just barely over the tops of the trees I've never seen shooting stars so big!" Luffy exclaimed in a childlike wonder.

"Actually now that you mention it I really haven't ever heard of shooting stars being heard from space before." Nico Robin replied as she started to look thoughtful at the events that had just taken place. That is until a few seconds later an explosion was heard in the distance.

"AAAHHH THAT CAME FROM THE AROUND THE AREA WHERE THE GOING MERRY WAS DOCKED!" everyone except for Nico Robin yelled at the same time. And with that everyone started running back to where they had docked so that Cricket could start making the adjustments to their ship so that it wouldn't get destroyed by the knock upstream.

When they got there everyone noticed that it looked like whatever those shooting stars had been when they had touched down they had landed with enough force to leave some very deep craters in the ground. However this wasn't the worst part when they showed up they realized that not all of the shooting stars had landed on the ground, in fact only about 7 of them had landed on the ground while the rest had gone crashing through Cricket's house once, The Going Merry once knocking out a portion of the ship, and another two had gone through an all too familiar ship that looked like it had been either coming in to dock or just leaving.

Zoro looked over at Luffy and said "Hey doesn't that ship have the same symbol as those guys who attacked us earlier today Luffy?

"It sure does looks like it's about to sink too. Zoro, Sanji go see if there are any survivors and help them get off." Luffy commanded seeing the devastation around them. "Usopp, Nami, Robin, chopper you guys go take a look around for Cricket, and the monkey guys. We need them if we are going to make it to Sky Island."

With that said Luffy started walking for a tall tree a few yards away, and started climbing it. "Oi Luffy what are you doing?" asked Sanji as he saw Luffy start climbing.

Smiling as he looked their way Luffy said "getting a better grasp of the problem it looks like each one of those things had the power to destroy about ship each they must have been bombs, or lasers or something." As he finished his statement Luffy's eyes started to shine as if they too were going to shoot lasers at those around him. As he got up to the top of the tree though Luffy noticed that the craters looked funny staring at each one of the 7 smoking craters around the clearing Luffy realized that something wasn't right. Jumping down he started to run to the nearest crater to him only to see a figure getting out of the crater slowly as he walked over towards it. "Hey are you ok?" Luffy asked as he kept walking closer to the unknown thing.

"Ya ya I'm ok, but where the hell am I? One moment I was looking for my friends and the next I was flying through what looked like space. Damn my head hurts to!" he said as he stepped out of the smoke giving Luffy a good view of him for the first time.

"Wait" Luffy said "you're from space that's so cool! Space Guy join my crew right now."

"Crew what crew? And who are you anyways? Why the hell would I join your crew I have to go back home anyways we were in the middle of a war when I was shot away I have to get back otherwise Aizen will kill all of my friends." The other guy replied.

All of a sudden out of the fog of the crater next to the one Luffy was currently at walked another person. This one though had half a helmet and two green marks on his cheeks that went down from his eyes to the bottom of his face making it look like he was crying. As he walked up he said "Trash haven't you realized yet that all of your friends are here with you right now, look around us." Sure enough out of all the craters around them figures were getting out and starting to step forward towards where the felt that their friends were. Even out of the water walked four more people.

When they had all gathered together Luffy realized that they were starting to separate a little bit and being who he was Luffy's natural curiosity was starting to get to him, so he finally asked the people "So who are you guys and why did you all fall from the sky?"

One of the characters stepped forward this one was a rather regular looking man in green who as soon as he started to step forward had put a fan up to hide the lower half of his face and replied "I am Kisuke Urahara and my companions are Ichigo Kurosaki, he said pointing to the first one to get out of one of the craters, Renji Abarai he said pointing next to a man with long red hair and several tattoos, Rukia Kuchiki he said pointing to a small woman with black hair and purple eyes who stood next to Renji, Uryu Ishida he said pointing to a young man in glasses, Yasutoro Sado he said pointing to the largest person in the entire group, and Orihime Inoue he said as he finished pointing at a woman with long orange hair. Those beings over there are our enemies the arrancar who we don't know much about."

This seemed to be a bit of a touchy subject for the arrancar as they all seemed to bristle a little bit at his introduction of them. In response to this though the one who had come out second with the long green tear marks stepped up and said as he said "We are the arrancar the enemy of all shinigami he replied my name is Ulquiorra cifer, my friends are Coyote Starrk he said pointing to a man to his left who just looked bored with everything that was happening around him, Tia Halibel he said pointing to the only woman standing in their group, and finally Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez. Now that both of our groups have introduced ourselves I think that it may be time for you to give us your name in response Trash."

"Trash?" Luffy asked "I don't see any trash anywhere around here. Oh well you might want to get your eyes checked next time you go to see a doctor. As for who I am though well that's easy my name is Monkey D. Luffy captain of the Straw Hat Pirates, and the man who will be the next Pirate King."

As he said this everyone around him sweat dropped. Urahara finally said "Excuse me Luffy san, but did you just say that you were going to be the next king of the pirates?"

"Ya aren't pirates bad?" asked Renji as he looked at Luffy his hand unsuspectingly inching closer towards his Zanpakutou at his side.

"No said Luffy as he looked at him, most pirates are but there are some pirates that only fight other pirates and marines that attack them." Replied Luffy as he started looking around as if something was wrong "Hey did you all happen to see anybody as you came over here?" Luffy asked as he looked around "Cause my friend was supposed to be here working on our ship so that we can go to sky island."

"No we didn't." they each said as they too started looking around for the first time since getting to the place they were all at currently.

Finally after not seeing anybody else out amongst the smoke Luffy said "Huh I figured my crew would be back by now. How odd." He thought to himself quietly.

All of a sudden several people all started to run out of the fog towards Luffy who just watched them all carefully. Finally when they all got there and caught their breathes Luffy asked so how did it go find any survivors guys?"

"Actually we did." said Sanji as he dropped a guy at his captain's feet. "Hey isn't that, that Bellamy guy who didn't believe in dreams?" Luffy asked as he looked over at Zoro who had walked up with Sanji.

"Ya that's him alright; we found him on that ship sinking in the harbor. However the weird thing is we didn't find any of his crew when we got there it was just him weird right?" Zoro said.

"It can't be helped then take him to chopper, and tell him to make sure that he doesn't die." Turning back to the Arrancar and shinigami who had just stood there listening to what he had said "You guys have a lot of damage to fix after the small disaster you caused tonight he chuckled."

Their mouths all dropped open and they all sweat dropped except for Ulquiorra and Halibel. Finally Urahara asked Luffy "What are you talking about Luffy san?"

Looking at Urahara Luffy replied well to tell you the truth as you all landed one of you all punched a hole through my ship the Going Merry, another one of you blew a hole through one of my friend's houses, and still two more of you sunk the ship of the man you saw being pulled away by Sanji just a minute ago. To add to this you all are from space and won't have the money to pay for the damages."

As he finished saying this Nami waked up and screamed like a demon at the new people "WHAT YOU ALL DESTROYED OUR SHIP AND YOU DON'T HAVE A WAY TO PAY US BACK WE HAVE TO BE AT THE KNOCK UPSTREAM TOMORROW SO WE CAN GO TO SKY ISLAND ASSHOLES!"

Luffy looked over at Nami smiled and said "I've got a plan on how you can pay us back, if you all are willing to listen to it."

Urahara who just happened to be wilting under Nami's glare at that moment said Luffy san I would love to hear your plan. And if you would hurry up I would be even happier."

Luffy looked at them chuckled and said "Join my crew until we can find you a way home."

"No." said all of the arrancar at the same time without even thinking about it.

They were echoed by almost everyone in the other group as they said "No."

"AAAWWW why not?" Luffy whined as he looked out over the assembled group.

"Actually I think we should do it." said Urahara as he looked at Luffy pleadingly as he was still the one person that Nami seemed to be focusing her hatred on. "Think about it; we all need to get home and if none of you have noticed yet we're not as strong as we were back in Hueco Mundo. In fact if I'm being honest it's like someone left me with all of my abilities, but took away about eighty percent of my power, and I would bet that if we used our abilities they would come out equivalent to how much powers we have. Thus saying I think we should stay with someone who knows more about this world than we do."

"I agree." said Halibel stepping forward for the first time since they had gotten out of their craters. "When you put it that way I believe you may have a point." she said as she looked at Urahara.

This caught Ichigo by surprise since this was the first time he had ever seen Halibel. Looking at her Ichigo made a mental note to talk to her later. _Man she's beautiful_ he thought as he looked at her.

"It doesn't matter if they join your crew or not unless we can get your boat ready for the knock upstream before daybreak." said Montblanc Cricket as he up to the group with several cuts all over his skin.

"What happened to you Diamond Head man?!" said Luffy as he looked at the state that Cricket was in.

"Well to tell you the truth you're talking to what happened to me." he replied as he looked at the people that had gotten out of the craters. "When they started falling from the sky me and the monkey boys all started running for the ocean to get in the water which we viewed as being safer than it was on land. We were right, but at the same time we never made it. One of these guys hit down in the middle of us when we were about twenty feet from the water's edge. It was like someone dropped a cannonball in the middle of us. You are now seeing the effects of the ensuing explosion. Anyways it's no big deal. If we use all of my guys we will be able to get the job done."

"Alright" said Luffy as he looked at everyone around him. "Sanji you stay with these guys see who wants to join the crew and answer their questions as best you can. Everyone else go help Diamond Head mister and the monkey guys go repair the ship and prepare it for the knock upstream."

"Where are you going?" asked Nami as she looked at Luffy leaving with a little concern in her eyes.

"Me I'm going to go check up on that Bellamy guy, he looked like he was hurt pretty bad earlier."

"WHAT!?" screamed Nami as she looked at Luffy who was still walking towards the house where chopper was looking after Bellamy who was the only one who was really hurt. "He's a jerk don't you remember him attacking you and Zoro for believing in sky island yesterday? Why on earth would you be worried about his wellbeing after what he did BAKA?!"

"Because he's strong enough to be in this crew he just needs to find his dreams again." Replied Luffy as he looked back over his shoulder to where Nami was standing; causing her to blush profusely despite the fact that she was just yelling at Luffy a moment ago. "Baka." She replied quietly to where even those around her could barely hear her as she went to do as her captain had commanded her.

As he walked into the house Luffy saw that Chopper was standing over by the table in his human point. "How's he doing?" Luffy asked as he saw Bellamy lying on the bed not moving.

"Well to tell you the truth he's not too badly injured; the only true injuries he's sustained are some fluid in his lungs from where he almost drowned, and a rather large cut running straight down his back where it looks like a large sword cut him at high speed." However overall I think he will recover fairly quickly, probably just a few days for the damage from the near drowning. As for the cut well despite its size it isn't nearly as deep as it looks. It probably just shocked him that he had been cut." Chopper told his captain as he looked on.

"Will he be up soon?" Luffy asked.

"Well as a matter of fact he should be up pretty soon. I'll call you when he's up however for now he needs his rest."

"Ok" said Luffy as he turned to leave. "just remember to call me when he wakes up, oh and he'll probably end up coming with us when we go to sky island do to the fact that we don't know where his crew is. That is if he doesn't wake up before we leave, so we'll prepare the medical bay for the ride to come." With that Luffy closed the door quietly so that he wouldn't wake Bellamy up.

It was about 8 the next morning when the boat was finished and Luffy was preparing his crew so that they could go to Sky Island.

"Alright guys this is it; the start of our next adventure, and let me tell you it should prove to be even more fun than our last one. After all it's not every day that one gets to go to an island floating in the sky. So guys go prepare yourselves for another fun day as part of the Straw Hat Pirates." Luffy said as he stood on the bow of the newly refurbished Going Merry.

As he finished speaking to those members of his crew that were present they all heard Nami say sarcastically "Ya taking down one of the seven warlords of the sea is fun." At this everyone heard a loud gasp and a heard something fall over.

Turning around they all saw Bellamy lying on the ground in the door where he had passed out on hearing what the Straw Hats had done on their last adventure.

"Ok Chopper take him and put him in the medical room. I'm gonna go see how Sanji is doing with the new guys and see how many of them are going to come with us."

"Luffy are you sure this is s-s-s-such a-a-a g-g-good i-i-idea" stuttered Usopp as he stared at the group on the far side of what was once the clearing where they had met Montblanc Cricket.

"Ya I'm sure" said Luffy as he walked over to where the other group was. "Ok have you all made your decisions yet?" Luffy asked as he walked up to the group.

"Well it's come to a bit of a draw on the subject." said the female arrancar named Halibel. "You see we a few of us seem to think the best course of action would be to just wait here and hope that the people we left behind come get us back. While the rest of us think that we should go with you and try to get some strength back along with trying to be active in trying to get back to our world."

"Why should we go with you?" asked the young Shinigami girl with black hair.

"Well for many reasons one being you'll have fun and never get bored, two is because you all have the potential to get stronger and I could use strong people who are fun like you all, three is because you'll eventually find what you're looking for since I plan on visiting everyplace in the world, since my navigator's dream is to make a map of the world, and finally if you go with someone else you'll never get as strong as with us, or even have the fun you would normally have with us since everyone else takes life way to serious." Luffy finished by chuckling.

Urahara stepped up and said "Well that settles it for me I'm going with you guys I have always enjoyed having a good time."

Halibel, Grimmjow, and Starrk all stepped up as he said this and said "We agree to go with you as well for different reasons." Said Halibel for all of them

They were soon followed by Ulquiorra who said I to will go with you since all of my companions have gone with you."

Ichigo walked up next and said "Well I'm with you too because you seem to be a good guy, and I don't think you're the kind of guy that would try to hurt us" and then in a whisper that only his companions could hear "not that I think that you are smart enough to hurt to many of us." There were a few quiet snickers at this, but for the most part that was one of the reasons why most had decided to join Luffy's crew in the first place.

As Ichigo started to walk away everyone who was left stepped up and the girl with the short black hair, who constantly stood next to the red headed man whose name Luffy thought he remembered was Renji, said "Ok well we kinda follow him so if he's with you, then we are with you too."

"YOSH" screamed Luffy as he pumped his fist in the air. "Ok well to tell you the truth we are leaving in just a few minutes and despite the fact that you all don't have much to your names you might want to grab what you have and prepare for some fun times ahead." As he finished this all of the people with Ichigo sweat dropped.

"Geez" said Ichigo as he started to walk towards the ship "just how childish is this new captain of ours?"

As Luffy got on the ship he heard a voice from behind calling his name. Turning around Luffy saw the Cricket walking up to them. Smiling he said "Diamond head mister what's up?"

"I just came to tell you to keep living your dreams no matter what happens, and just remember not to let anyone give you crap about it." said cricket as he looked at Luffy and his crew as they started to sail off with the monkey guys. "And realize that I'm rooting for you and your crew mates ok kid."

"Ok mister, we'll show you Sky Island exists, WE'LL PROVE IT'S EXISTANCE TO THE WHOLE WORLD!" Luffy finished his statement in a shout that everyone nearby could hear. His yell brought a smile to the old man's face as he looked up to where Luffy stood on the Going Merry smiling, and he whispered "Go get'em kid the world is yours for the taking."

As they sailed away though Ichigo walked up to Luffy and looking right into his face said "Captain Luffy sir I don't mean to sound rude or anything but did I hear you straight when I heard you say that you were going to prove that Sky Island existed?"

"Ya I said that." Luffy replied as he looked at Ichigo with a questioning look on his face. "Why do you ask?"

"Yes Ichigo I do believe an explanation is in place I'm pretty sure that what Luffy said was pretty obvious." said Urahara as he looked over to where Ichigo stood looking at Luffy in what could be explained as mild irritation, and just a little bit of fear.

"I bring this up because wouldn't that mean that this place may not exist at all in the first place." Ichigo replied not even turning to face Urahara or the gathering crowd that was now walking just a few feet behind them all to see what was happening.

"It's too late to turn back now Shinigami san" replied a cool voice from the deck above them, causing everyone to turn and look up to see who was talking to them. "When Captain san has made up his mind it's made up just ask anyone on this ship, it's weird, but it's like he gets whatever he wants. Which is my way of saying that even if you want to turn around now it's far too late since captain san wants to go see if it exists."

Ichigo turned back to Luffy and asked "Is what she said true you go about doing whatever you want even if it might hurt your friends?" the whole time he was asking this his hand was drawing his cleaver like sword from his back.

Oblivious to what might be about to happen to him Luffy said "Well I suppose that might be a way of describing what I do as the captain." As he finished Ichigo yelled and charged at Luffy who was more or less shocked at his reaction.

"Why would you do that to your friends?" Ichigo almost yelled as he charged straight at Luffy the question that was now on the minds of all of Ichigo's companions. Before Ichigo could strike Luffy down though Zoro appeared in front of him holding one of his swords above him blocking his downward stroke that would have cut Luffy in half from top to bottom.

"You never attack the captain, and just so you know despite the fact that Luffy seems to get us all in trouble the majority of the time he has never cost us anything before. In fact he has saved us all on more than one occasion when we have gotten ourselves into problems of our own. For the most part that's why most of us are on this ship sailing with him rather than dead. Me for example I was set to be executed for going against a marine's son by killing his pet wolf when it attacked a little girl. If Luffy had not shown up I would have been killed without knowing that I was going to die. Nami there" Zoro said pointing to the Navigator who was steering the ship, but at the same time listening to the events unfold before her. "her entire island was being held by pirates and forced to pay just for their lives, and Nami because of her skill in drawing maps was personally forced into the crew as a navigator. When Luffy showed up he took down the entire pirate crew almost single handedly. When Usopp's town was attacked by pirates Luffy had us help him keep the village safe despite the fact that we ourselves were pirates and could have just left well enough alone. And Sanji over there" Zoro said pointing out yet another one of his crew mates "he group on a restaurant ship and when it was attacked by one of the meanest pirates around he helped Sanji and the owner fight off a crew of one hundred pirates just so that they could keep their dingy little restaurant."

In the background Sanji screamed "DINGY LITTLE RESTAURANT WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT YOU CRAPPY MARIMO!?"

"SHUT UP STUPID COOK I'M NOT DONE HERE!" as he finished saying this Ichigo pulled his sword back and put it back on his back, and Zoro continued. "These are only of few of the stories that we have where Luffy has saved our lives and those are only some of the ones where he didn't cause a thing to happen it was mostly on us. I trust his judgment and so should you now that you're one of our nakama." Zoro finished.

Looking a little sheepish at his actions Ichigo turned towards where Luffy was standing facing out to sea "Sorry Luffy I guess I spoke out of turn" he said with a deep blush starting to creep onto his face. When Luffy didn't acknowledge his presence he continued on by saying "I'm also sorry for attacking you." Of course in classic Luffy fashion this was when everyone on the crew heard his snore and saw the snot bubble coming out of his nose. Urahara who had been watching the events open and close from behind his fan said "Well it seems our young captain was right when he said that things would never be boring on this ship." And with that he chuckled quietly to himself as he turned and walked away while several others continued to just stand and stare in awe at the fact that their new captain had fallen asleep in front of a charging Ichigo who was sweat dropping like crazy at the fact that he had apologized in front of all of his friends to a sleeping young man.

A little while later Luffy was seen messing with the bird from the night before which Ichigo and his friends had come to learn was called a south bird due to the fact that no matter what it always pointed south. When they had asked why they were following the directions of a bird. Nami had told them that they were on a sea called the Grand Line, and that in this particular sea compasses didn't work so they had to follow these things called log pose because they could follow the different magnetic fields between each island. And currently they were headed for a location that wasn't pointed out by their log pose. Luckily for them the place they were going was south. Thus they were using the south bird for navigation.

Everything seemed to be going good for everyone when there was a slight jolt in the boat looking out to where the monkey's ships were on both sides of their own ship Luffy said "Hey monkey guys what's going on?"

"Well to tell you the truth it probably means we're getting close." Replied Masira as he looked forward to see what was happening in front of where they were headed.

All of a sudden one of the men from Masira's screamed out for everyone to hear "DARK MASS ON THE HORIZON IT'S THE MILLINIUM-CUMULONIMBUS CLOUD."

"What time is it?" asked Masira as he walked up to the man who had called out. "Its only about 9:50 its far earlier than we originally thought" he replied.

When the lookout said this Shoujo turned to his men and said "everyone hurry get into position, GORILLA SCUBADIVERS GET INTO THE WATER NOW HE YELLED!"

As they all got into position Shoujo started wailing into his microphone just enough to cause everyone on the Straw Hats ship to realize that this was it, it was finally time for them to go to Sky Island. Some of the Straw Hats smiled at this while still others started to get even more nervous amongst those that got more nervous was Orihime who was just kind of quietly dealing with her anxiety without drawing to much attention to herself. However as fate would have it Ulquiorra her former jail keeper looked over just in time to see the worried expression on her face and walked over, and in his always neutral voice said "You do not need to be afraid if this attempt fails I will not let you die."

With that he turned to walk away only to stop when he heard Orihime ask "Why? Why would you choose to save me when there are so many people who are so much more useful than me?"

Without even looking over his shoulder Ulquiorra said "Because you are worth more than you think." And in a quieter voice than almost anyone else heard he whispered "Especially to me." However, what he hadn't realized was that Ichigo and Halibel were both standing closer than he had thought and both had heard what he had said. However, neither had the time to say anything either to each other or to Ulquiorra.

All of a sudden one of the divers jumped out of the water and yelled "10 o'clock huge waves found most likely a huge whirlpool."

Masira who had been listening jumped to the railing of his ship and yelled "THAT'S IT EVERYONE TURN YOUR SHIPS TO 10 O'CLOCK THE WHIRLPOOL IS THE SIGN FOR THE EXLOSION!"

As he yelled this out Halibel started to feel a little sick looking back the way they had come and for the first time "_crap I hate whirlpools if I had known that this was how you knew where this knock upstream thing was then I would have said hell no to this entire journey._ Unfortunately what she didn't realize was that she had shown some fear when she wasn't paying attention and Ichigo had noticed and decided to comfort her and possibly make a friend in the process. "Hey are you ok there?" he asked as he got close enough that no one else would hear what was said.

Realizing that he was saving her face by keeping this whole thing quiet she decided to not make a scene like, and said "No actually I'm so afraid of whirlpools that I can barely move right now she said. You know it's funny because I'm equated to a shark amongst the espada and yet I'm so afraid of this that the other espada would laugh at me just hearing those words come out of my mouth. Of course it probably makes you want to laugh to right?" she asked less because she wanted to know and more because she was sure that she had hit the nail on the head.

"No I'm not actually" he replied, causing her to look over at him in confusion. "You might find this funny but I believe that it makes more sense for you to be afraid of a whirlpool if you are equated to a shark, since a whirlpool is one of the few things that nothing in the sea can stand up to." Ichigo finished as he saw her eyes grow just a little softer as he finished his statement.

"Thanks" she said as she turned to walk away already feeling safer just from having talked to him.

"Halibel" Ichigo said as she walked away "don't worry if anything happens before this is over I'll help you out." Having said his piece to her he too turned and walked away.

As the ship got close to the whirlpool everyone started to get nervous and Nami shouted out "ALRIGHT NOW WHAT DO WE DO?"

In response the ships that were on both sides of the Going Merry just stopped at the edge of the whirlpool and Masira shouted across to her "KEEP HEADING INTO THE HEART OF THE WHIRLPOOL THAT'S WHERE THE KNOCK UPSTREAM WILL TAKE PLACE, AND REMEMBER WE'RE COUNTING ON YOU GUYS TO PROVE THAT THE MONTBLANCS ARE NOT LIARS."

Thus the Straw Hat Pirates were left on their own; and of course the worst possible thing happened at that moment. Bellamy finally woke up walking outside he looked around and said "What the hell is going on?"

Luffy jumped down in front of him and said simply "We're going to Sky Island, and you who we found just lying off of the cost are coming with us. Especially since there is no way to get you back to the others now."

"You're still going on about that whole Sky Island crap are you an idiot? You're going to get us killed you idiot!" Bellamy said.

"No I'm not besides you need to be taking it easy when these guys landed last night you were wounded quite badly."

This statement caught Orihime's attention and she said "Let me see the wound I can take care of it."

Both of the captains looked over to where Orihime stood and said together in shock "you can?"

Under both of their gazes Orihime started to wilt as she said "Well yes I'm actually q very good healer."

Luffy just jumped up and screamed "YOSH THAT'S SO COOL SHOW ME SHOW ME!" and as he finished he threw Bellamy onto the ground with enough force that Bellamy could do nothing, but show his surprise.

"You had that much strength in you and yet you wouldn't fight me or my men yesterday. Why not?"

Looking at him Luffy just smiled as he said "Oh that's simple I would have regretted beating you up when you don't even have a dream to live for." as he finished saying this both of them were caught off guard by an orange light closing over Bellamy's still form.

Luffy was about to say something about this when everyone noticed that the water around them had grown completely calm despite the fact that a moment ago it had been sending them in circles. "What happened?" asked Luffy as he looked around.

Nami was about to answer when a shout was heard and cut her off STRAW HAT LUFFY I'VE FINALLY CAUGHT UP TO YOU! I'VECOME TO TAKE YOUR HEAD SINCE IT'S WORTH 1OO MILLION BELI!" yelled Blackbeard as his ship sailed closer to Luffy's own.

A HUNDRED MILLION BELI WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT I ONLY HAVE A BOUNTY FOR A THIRTY MILLION BELI.

Back on his boat Blackbeard thought out loud to himself so you didn't know that you had a hundred million beli.

Then he held up two bounty posters and shouted "YA YOU HAVE a HUNDRED MILLION BELI ON YOUR HEAD AND PIRATE HUNTER RORONOAH ZORO HAS a BOUNTY OF 60 MILLION BELI."

Back on the Straw Hat's ship Usopp was looking through a pair of binoculars and said "It's true Luffy has a hundred million beli on his head and Zoro has sixty million beli on his head."

Walking over to and putting his hand around Usopp's shoulders Sanji said "Hey I have a bounty to right?"

Looking back over to see if Sanji had a bounty he said "No."

"Look again." said Sanji as he started to hold Usopp just a little tighter than necessary.

"Still nothing." said Usopp as he looked again just so Sanji would leave him alone.

In the background Luffy was jumping for joy at the news as Zoro just stood there and said "I'm not satisfied with that."

Bellamy simply stuttered out "B-b-both of you have higher bounties than I do. How did this happen?"

"Well" said Robin as she walked up to him as Orihime finished and walked away, "it was bound to happen when Luffy beat crocodile one of the Seven Warlords of the seas."

Behind all of this Ichigo and his companions just stood dumbfounded at the news until Ichigo ran up to Luffy and said how do you have a bounty worth millions?"

Luffy just smiled as he replied "Don't know."

Turning to Nami who was standing close by looking really happy for Luffy Ichigo said "How the hell did he get that high of a bounty being as goofy as he is?"

Looking at Ichigo in annoyance Nami was about to reply when everyone heard a rumble and saw the water levels start to rise. Instead of talking to Ichigo, Nami turned instead to everybody and yelled out "Hurry everyone grab onto something sturdy." For the most part everyone did just that, everyone that is except for Bellamy who was just sitting there in shock at the news that Luffy had a higher bounty than him.

All of a sudden the knock upstream really took off and blew the entire ship towards the sky. Blackbeard's ship on the other hand had not been prepared for the knock upstream and was blown to pieces instead of being launched into the air like the Going Merry."

As for the Straw Hats most were now holding onto anything they could just to keep from falling to their deaths however there were a few who had not been able to grab onto anything for one reason or another. The first of this group was Bellamy who had just sat there until the ship launched up into the sky and by the all he could do was watch as the entire length of the ship went flying by. Without realizing it Bellamy started shedding tears as he passed by Luffy who saw what had happened and immediately he jumped off of mast which he had been holding onto. Everyone started yelling after Luffy different things for the most part Nami Screaming for Luffy to come back, Zoro screaming for Luffy to stop being an idiot, and almost all of the new guys screaming for Luffy to grab onto something.

However they all realized it was too late as Luffy had just passed by the last part of the ship. That is until both Luffy and Bellamy shot back over to the mast of the ship when Luffy threw his hand back and wrapped it around said mast. They proceeded to hold onto the mast for dear life at that moment. Bellamy no longer crying simply looked at Luffy in wonder and asked "I'm your enemy why would you save me?"

Smiling Luffy said you can be a good guy you show all of the potential to be something great you just need to find your dreams again. Besides you're on my ship that makes you my nakama. At least for the until you decide to leave that is."

As the whole thing started Orihime had been trying to hold onto a section of the stair's railing so that she wouldn't fall, but do to her weak constitution as soon as the ship started to go vertical she started to lose her grip, and fall. That is until a strong hand wrapped around her and the railing holding her in place. Looking over her shoulder she saw that Ulquiorra was there holding her up smiling meekly she whispered so that only he heard "Thank you Ulquiorra kun." On hearing this Ulquiorra was so shocked that he to almost let go, realizing what was about to happen he immediately grabbed on tighter feeling his heart beat quicken a bit. He decided he would have the little raccoon doctor take a look at him when they reached their destination.

Not too long after that happened Nami said "We're starting to fall away from the knock upstream everyone. We need to unfurl the sails immediately so that we can use the wind to make this go faster." As she finished speaking everyone who could immediately started to go about doing as she had told them to.

As all of this was happening though Halibel had been doing the one thing you don't do when that high up, and one thing that she had never done before in her life. She looked down and had seen that they were literally riding a giant pillar of water into the sky. This brought on the one thing she had never happened before to her in her entire time she lost her grip and her consciousness and fell Ichigo seeing Halibel start to fall had done the only thing he could he had reached out and grabbed her as she passed by. This in turn caused him to lose his grip on the railing of the upper deck he had been holding onto and he to slipped and fell until he caught the railing with the toes of both his feet.

They stayed like that until Halibel woke up right before they entered the Sky Island Sea of clouds. At which point as they righted Ichigo had found he was just staring into Halibel's sea green eyes and without realizing what he said belted out "Wow your eyes are so beautiful. I think I might get lost in them." then Ichigo realized what he had said and his mouth fell open as Halibel simply lay there thinking how glad she was that her collar covered her face as her blush spread under her mask fragment.

Looking away quickly she said "Thank you for the compliment Kurosaki san, you saved my life and for that I thank you as well." Not knowing what else to do both Ichigo and Halibel started to head back to the rest of the crew.

When they got there they realized that everyone was celebrating, even Bellamy who had thought that Sky Island was nothing more than a story told to dreamers who had nothing more to do with their life other than dream, was happy to be there and wasn't holding back in the celebrations. All of a sudden Luffy stretched his arm up to the top of the ship grabbing every ones attention as he whipped himself to the bird's nest. Most of the new crewmen all stared at him and thought quietly to themselves _how did he stretch his body like that_? However, they were starting to accept the eccentricities of their new captain and believed it to have something to do with this new world they were in.

As he stood in front of the entire crew Luffy gave his incredibly large smile and Yelled "YOSH WE MADE IT TO SKY ISLAND!" causing everyone to cheer at their good fortune.

Back in Hueco Mundo

Down in his palace Aizen had summoned all of his remaining soldiers to him unfortunately for him that included Barragon, Yammy, and several low level arrancar along with Gin and Tousen since do to the fighting done that day most of his men had died it seemed. Well guys it seems that despite everything we have fought so hard for we won't have enough men to fight the soul reapers today unfortunately as many of you all probably felt four of our espada disappeared today while fighting a berserk Ichigo Kurosaki who had lost control of his powers. The weirdest part of this however is not that they disappeared, but that Ichigo Kurosaki and his friends all disappeared as well. This means that there may be a new enemy that we have not heard of before. We will need to recover our strength before we can continue on with our plan to beat the soul society.

"We will also need to find our missing companions if they are not already dead." continued Aizen as he looked out at the assembled arrancar.

Back in the Soul society

In the first division's barracks a captains meeting had been called. "So there you all have it." said the captain commander as he looked out at the assembled crowd "Many of the enemy's strongest players have all disappeared along with Ichigo Kurosaki, his friends, and sadly Urahara Kisuke. We will continue our war against Aizen and his forces however at the same time we would like for the twelfth division to look for an answer as to where all of our missing allies have gone."

"Now you are all dismissed!" said the captain commander.

As the last Captain left the old man said "You can come out now."

In response out of the shadows stepped three people he had not expected; Isshin Kurosaki, Yoruichi Shihoin, and Shinji Hirako. "Looking at them he said "What is it you all want?"

"We came to tell you that we to want to take place in finding all those that have been lost, and we will not take no for an answer." said Isshin as he looked the captain commander in the eye.

"Very Well former Captain Kurosaki, we will call you when we come up with something. In the meantime all you can do is help us keep Aizen in check by defend Karakura town." The captain commander replied as he looked out over the assembled people.

"We'll do it, but you had better not slack on this one sir." Isshin shot back just so the captain commander new that they weren't like Aizen they would make him pay if he didn't keep his word to them.

**Alright here it is Chapter two I won't lie it wasn't as fun as chapter one, but that's only because I didn't have any action it was all simply the characters getting to know each other. I'm afraid that the next chapter will mostly be over the development of couples since I have so many of them and it's still quite away before we get to any major fighting.**

**Like I said at the beginning I really need to know who should be the final 11 character for the one piece side of this crew so if you all would shoot me a review or a pm on who it should be I would greatly appreciate it. So I guess that's all for now though.**


	3. 7,000 meters

**Chapter 3 finally here! Sorry it took so long to get it out. This semester was a little more hectic than I originally thought it would be. I took a lot more onto my plate than I really should have being as lazy as I am. I tried to teach two different bible studies this semester, help with a third, take 16 credit hours in college, and work a part time job. On top of being as lazy as I am it really didn't make for a very good combination. So this is me apologizing for my tardiness in this story or my other one if you read that one as well. I'm also sad to say that this will not be the last time it happens either since next semester is going to be even crazier. Just a heads up for you all before it gets here. I do plan on doing my best to update more often though. So with that said on to the story.**

Luffy had just finished his speech to the crew about their adventure to get to Sky Island, and everyone was looking around in amazement at the sight surrounding the Going Merry.

All around them the ship was encompassed by clouds, and it seemed as if that was what the ship was actually floating on. Ichigo was rather shell shocked never before had he thought he would be able to actually be up amongst the clouds without either using his reiatsu to float by creating a platform for him to stand on when he was in the sky, or by sitting in a plane that was flying. The experience was defying every piece of logic that he had ever thought even remotely possible. Looking around Ichigo realized that he wasn't the only one either, for as he looked at his companions and the arrancar around the ship he could see the same stupefied look on all of their faces.

Urahara was the only one that didn't seem surprised by the fact that he was on a ship floating on clouds. Thinking that something about that fact was weird Ichigo walked up to him and said "Alright spill it shopkeeper, why aren't you surprised that we are floating in the sky on clouds."

Looking back at him Urahara simply flipped out his fan and in that creepy way of his smiled and said, "Well Ichigo to tell you the truth I am very surprised in fact I was wondering how to best go about getting a sample for study later after we find a place to settle down."

Looking at him Ichigo couldn't help but feel a chill run down his back at the way the old shopkeeper was looking at him kind of like he was about to send him into the clouds to get said sample. However luckily for Ichigo Usopp, the sniper for the strawhats who just happened to have the longest nose Ichigo, or anyone else from his world for that matter, had ever seen before, was currently talking to the doctor of the little crew they had joined. Chopper as he was called, was a little raccoon looking animal, which for some strange reason could speak very fluently. Their conversation was drawing the attention of those around them as Usopp said to the chopper, "Now watch as I the great Captain Usopp swim in the clouds."

In the background everyone heard Sanji, the blonde chef who they had all listened to tell them a little about what it would be like to be a pirate the night before, say "Don't do anything stupid." However, Sanji was ignored by Usopp as he turned from chopper and jumped into the clouds. Without even thinking about it Ichigo and Renji both ran up to the edge of the ship and started to look for him only to just catch a glimpse of his feet as he disappeared into the clouds.

For a while everyone just sat there waiting for Usopp to come back up, but he never did. That's when Robin the archeologist walked up and said "You know we think of this as a see, but is there really a bottom to this sea?"

When she finished saying this everyone's jaw dropped as the implications of what she had just said seemed to catch up with them. Ichigo turned back to look and see if he had come back up yet in the vain attempt at having not lost one of his new crewmates before he had even gotten to know him. What he saw instead caused him to do a double take on the situation, for there was the captain jumping about five feet into the air and throwing his arm into the clouds. This time it was Ichigo's turn to drop his jaw as he saw what was happening. Looking over at Ichigo Renji said "what's the matter with you berryboy?" That is when the others all saw Luffy's arm stretching into the clouds even though he was now standing on the deck, this sight caught most by surprise as they had not been paying attention earlier when Luffy had saved Bellamy when they were going up knock upstream. "HOW THE HELL IS HE DOING THAT?" Renji, Grimmjow, and Ichigo screamed as they all watched.

They were ignored though as Robin said to Luffy "Stretch your arm as far as you can."

"But I can't see, if I stretch as far as I can without seeing I'll miss for sure." Was the captain's reply to his new archeologist.

Giving a small smile Robin said "don't worry about seeing I'll take care of that."

Luffy being who he is just did as he was told and stretched his arm as far as he could, and robin crossed her arms over her chest saying "True seeing fleur." What no one else saw was that three different eyes appeared on Luffy's arm as it went flying through the clouds towards the sky beneath it. One of the eyes was on the palm of his hand while two more were now on some part of his stretched out forearm. After a few moments of this Robin finally called out "found him over there. Six wheel fleur. You can pull him up now"

Ichigo just stared at her as she said this, and said "ARE YOU ALL INSANE?! HOW CAN YOU SEE HIM FROM WHERE YOU ARE?"

As he finished screaming Nami the navigator for the ship, a little read headed girl with hair that she kept cut just above her shoulders, walked up to him and all of the new people Bellamy included and said "Robin ate the hana hana no mi, she can produce any part of the human body from anything she can see. Luffy also ate the gomu gomu no mi, so he is a rubber man." With that she turned away as if that explained everything that was happening.

Before anyone could ask her to go into more detail though Usopp was whipped out of the clouds. Following him however, were two large sea creatures. One looked like a giant octopus that towered over the little ship by nearly 100 feet and it was still only half out of the water, the second one looked like a snake that was probably about 100 feet long, and about 15 feet high. As they started to emerge though Chopper screamed out that they were there, and this caused several people amongst the crowd to start screaming, such as Usopp, Rukia, Orihime, Renji, Nami, and Chopper. Even Ichigo let out a bit of a scream, though the only one to notice this was Halibel as she had been watching the whole scene from next to Ulquiorra who was just as emotionless as normal.

Finally Zoro went flying by everyone there saying "Cowards, this is nothing to get excited about." As he finished saying this he jumped up into the air using the railing of the ship as a springboard to boost himself up. Once he was about twenty feet away from one of the tentacles that were flying towards the ship, everyone saw a quick flash of light centered around where Zoro's three blades were at his sides. As he landed on the deck again there was a loud pop as the tentacle burst like a balloon stepped on at birthday party. This caught most of the attention of those on the ship.

There were a few though that had watched as the snake had attacked the side of the ship, and Sanji had kicked it in the head effectively collapsing its skull, and killing it. Looking down at the snake that he had just kicked in the head Sanji said "hmm a mysterious creature I wonder if this passes for a fish in this sea?" What followed seemed to be the most normal point in the day so far, to everyone who had just joined the crew, as the entire regular crew started talking about the sea around them, that is until Usopp once again started screaming like a five year old girl while shaking is legs in the weirdest way that the others had ever seen.

Looking over his shoulder at him Sanji yelled at him "NOISY! WHAT THE HELL IS THE PROBLEM NOW?!"

Looking at him with crocodile tears running down his face Usopp held up a fish with tons two rows of teeth that looked like it was smiling at him, and said "Th-th-this wa-wa-wa-was i-i-i-in my p-p-pants." Usopp then finished by curling up into the fetal position, and rocking back and forth while muttering to himself about how scary sky island was.

Over to the side of the ship Uryu was standing next to Ulquiorra, Starrk, and Urahara as they watched this all happen with mostly blank expressions. Uryu finished watching the scene turned to the others next to him and said, "Well not that it matters at this point, but after watching this I find myself wondering, What kind of crew have joined, and what have we gotten ourselves into by joining them?"

Looking at him Ulquiorra kept his neutral expression as he replied "Well for once I agree with you trash. This is indeed the most unusual group of people I have ever seen in my life."

"Quit calling me trash you hollow bastard!" Uryu yelled back at him in return.

At this Starrk turned towards him and with a grimace on his face said "Are you really going there you damn Quincy, right now when all we have is each other and this simple little crew of people that has taken us in. Now you want to start a fight in a world we don't know with only about 20 percent of our power at our disposal, plus you are still one of the most injured people amongst us after that little fight you tried to have with Ulquiorra before we were hit over here in the first place. Hey look if you wanna die be my guest, but try not to drag the rest of us into your own little war."

As he said this there was a shout from chopper that caught everyone's attention. "Hey there is a ship, and a… person? Eh?"

"What is it Chopper?" Luffy asked as he saw Chopper's jaw drop just after saying that he had seen a ship. "Hey Chopper a ship you say is there a ship over there?"

"No" Chopper replied "There was a ship over there, but the ship is not there anymore."

"What do you mean Chopper? You're not making any sense." Sanji said as he looked at him.

Without thinking Chopper all of a sudden yelled "THERE'S A BULL CHARGING ON A RECTANGULAR CLOUD FROM OVER THERE! THIS IS BAD!"

Zoro who just wanted to go to sleep walked up to see what was going on just in time to see, and hear Choppers scream, and said "I don't get it; calm down Chopper." Though as Chopper just kept acting nervous Zoro soon got a tick mark on his head in annoyance.

He was just about to tell Chopper to shut up when all of a sudden Sanji said "Look there's someone coming, and they're running on the cloud!"

As he said this though that very person jumped off the clouds and sailed over the edge of the ship. Sanji who was closest simply said "Hey what's your problem?"

Ichigo was a little surprised to hear the hostility coming from the chef who the night before had done nothing but fawn over the women amongst the group that he was supposed to talk to. It was then that Ichigo heard the new guys reply to his answer, which was ironically spoken in very badly broken Japanese, "Destroy You All!"

Ichigo thought for a moment about making a move on this man, but stopped wanting to see first what the fighters on this ship were capable of. Seeing he was not alone with this decision as all the new people just watched as the new guy simply kicked all three of the best fighters on the ship down to the ground as all three tried to fight back. Ichigo just gave a grunt of disappointment at what he saw, but then everyone started to regret there decision as they saw the man jump off the deck into the air and aim what looked like a bazooka at the ship while saying "This is the end for you."

Before he could do pull the trigger though a man came flying towards him on a giant bird while holding a lance towards the man's chest. This forced the man in the bull's mask to pull up the shield he was holding to block the attack instead shoot the ship. When the strike connected with the man's shield it launched the man at rather amazing speeds right into the clouds that the ship was floating on. As the bull mask guy disappeared into the clouds, the guy who had sent him flying landed on the edge of the ship facing the clouds that he had shot the other man at.

"Who is it now?" Nami asked a little apprehensive of the fact that perhaps he too was an enemy.

Turning around so that everyone could see his face they were all surprised to see an old man standing before them. He had a pointed goatee, and a mustache to match it, both of these were white. He was built with a very wiry frame, and not many could actually tell if he had any muscle or if all his strength had simply come from the speed with which he had hit their previous attacker. He wore a suit of armor to cover his frame though it didn't look like it fit properly anymore, though at one time in his past he may have filled it out quite nicely. As he turned around he said "Me I'm the Knight of the Sky."

With that said he turned around and once again started watching to see if the other man came back. Nami looked down at Luffy, Sanji, and Zoro, and started to yell at them about how weak they were, while all three of them just seemed shocked and were muttering to themselves about how their bodies weren't following their commands. This was soon explained by Robin though as she reminded them that they were now several thousand feet in the air and the oxygen was quite a bit thinner than before. Thus they wouldn't be able to move as freely for a few minutes.

Bellamy who had been thinking up to this point that maybe he was mistaken in believing that Luffy's bounty was 100 million, realized that this was true, and that he too couldn't move as fast as he normally could. Even in his semi-injured state he should still have been able to keep up with the speed that the man who attacked them was moving at.

Thinking about it now Ichigo realized the same thing as Bellamy, and after taking a quick look at each other they both realized that the man would have killed all of them without even having to fight them. Feeling guilty for having left the fighting up to them Bellamy quickly stepped forward and apologized saying "Captain Luffy forgive, I'm a guest on your ship, and I owe you my life for having saved me, yet I did nothing to help. I am sorry."

He was quickly followed by Ichigo who said "I'm sorry too, I know I could have stepped up and stopped the guy, but I wanted to see whether you and your crew were skilled enough to help us."

Looking up from his spot on the floor Luffy only smiled and started to laugh in that unique way of his "Shishishishishi, its ok he said I want to see how tough you all are" he said looking at Ichigo and his crew which now seemed to envelope the arrancars that for some reason had started to start staying closer to them for numbers if not for anything else. Looking at Bellamy he smiled as he said "As for you as a guest aboard my ship you shouldn't have to fight anyway so no skin off of any of your backs guys."

As Luffy finished saying these things The Knight of Sky looked over his shoulder and said "After having listened to you just now I have to assume that perhaps maybe you all are citizens of the blue sea. Now before you ask," said the knight as he held up his hand to stop any questions that might be coming from the many people that had circled around him to hear what he had to say "the blue sea is the sea below the clouds. You are now in the White Sea, this is currently 7,000 meters above the ocean, above us another 3,000 meters, is the white white sea, The air up here is so thin that normal people from the blue seas can't actually stand it."

However contrary to his belief Luffy, and Zoro both said "Ok I'm starting to get used to it." This was followed a moment later by Sanji, and Bellamy who both said at the same time me too, this caused both of them to look at the other with a little bit of respect." Though Sanji's gaze was also a little wary of him since he had attacked his captain just the day before.

Bellamy feeling the slight bit of wariness that was laced into the gaze towards him looked away knowing it was justified. Bellamy was also slightly afraid of insulting anyone on this crew, here they were thousands of miles higher than his crew, and they were not likely to see him again until Saobody Archipelago. Not knowing what would happen to him he decided to just take a back seat for the ride to come and not stand in the way where he could possibly get hurt.

All of a sudden before anything else could happen, the old sky knight just looked at them and said "Lies you all must be lying because it's impossible to become accustomed to it so soon." However, the way he said it made it sound more like he was amazed that they could even manage to do that.

"Anyways" he said "I know you probably have a ton of questions, but first business. You see I'm a freelance mercenary, and this is a very dangerous sea. Anyone who doesn't know about aero battles will be attacked by people like the guy from earlier, and they will be left for sky-fish food. Each whistle will cost you 50,000,000 Aigusu, and then I will come to save you."

When he finished speaking everyone one the ship just stare at him like he had just spoken some kind of foreign language, it stayed like that for a while before the original crew all turned their heads to the side as if that would give them a better perspective. It didn't help surprising enough so Luffy as the captain asked "So umm what are you talking about Mr?"

Looking at him the old man said "Cut the crap. The price is cheap enough as is, I have living expenses too ya know."

Looking a little exasperated Luffy replied "That's why I'm asking what Aigusu is, and what the whistle thingy is?"

"No way you all didn't come through sky top? You must've at least visited an island or two by now right?" the sky night asked as his eyes got larger as he continued his statement going from being narrowed in wariness to wide open in wonder at the crew before him.

His thoughts were confirmed a few seconds later as Nami stepped forward and asked "Isn't there only one sky island?"

"How did you all get here?" Sky knight asked as he looked at those around him in wonder.

"We took the knock up stream." Said Grimmjow growing restless at the lack of action that was happening around him, and needing something to do other than just watch as he had been.

The sky Knight just stared straight at him like he was insane then, looking around the crew he asked "Who's the captain here?" to this Luffy raised his hand and a huge smile enveloped his face stretching far beyond what was possible for any normal man, though to Ichigo, and his friends it seemed as if they all knew one or two people who had a smile that large. "Wow you actually took that monstrous stream up here. I didn't think there was anyone left who were that brave."

At this point Nami started crying while muttering to herself "It wasn't the normal way up." Before Nami had even finished though she had turned around and started to shake Luffy back and forth like a doll while screaming at him "WE COULD HAVE DIED IF WE HAD GATHERED MORE DATA WE COULD HAVE USED A SAFER METHOD!"

Luffy managed to reply despite being shaken, saying "Who cares were all alive anyway." Nami looked at him, and blushed again even when she was mad, she couldn't seem to look at the boy in front of her without blushing. In her mind Nami started to berate herself _Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Why can't you even look in his direction without acting like a little girl?_

Looking down at the crew from where he now sat on the aft deck of the ship sky knight said "Did you all lose any crew on the way up here?"

"No" Luffy replied "we're all here."

"I thought as much." Said the sky knight "Other routes are not like this one, this is an all or nothing route that will either cost everyone to die, or allow everyone to make it here safely. To people these days that's just too much of a gamble, anyone who takes that path is someone I consider to be a true sailor." As he said this he tossed a whistle down to the deck where everyone was standing, Rukia being the closest picked it up and started to examine it. "The first ones a gift, blow it if you ever find yourselves in need of help, I'll come right away. Then with that he turned around and started walking towards the giant bird he had flown in on. "Oh I almost missed my introduction." he said as the bird started to change before their very eyes. "My name is Gon Kerr knight of the sky, and this is my partner Piy'Aher. He ate the wild horse fruit, and can turn into a hybrid between the bird, and the horse." he said as he jumped onto Piy'aher's back.

As the bird transformed Nami, Rukia, and Orihime all gasped out "A PEGASUS!" However, what greeted them was something entirely different. Before them, was Gon Kerr half sitting and half standing on the bird-horse hybrid. It was however not one of the majestic Pegasus that the crew had originally envisioned, no instead before them sat a polka-a-dotted horse with wings, though to call it a Pegasus would have been an insult to all pegasi around the world. What stood before the crew was by far the most hideous creature any of them had ever seen.

The whole crew sweat dropped. It couldn't be helped the whole situation was ridiculous even by the strawhat crews standards. There sat Gon Kerr on his bird hybrid, and taking such pride in the fact that he got to ride the creature. Ichigo just started to shake his head in pity for the old man who he thought was probably going senile in his old age. Grimmjow and Renji though were both staring in open shock at the man. Before anything else could happen the old man flew away holding his lance in the air in triumph.

As soon as he was gone both Renji and Grimmjow both started howling in laughter neither of them could stop either; they just found the whole situation to hilarious to talk about. Urahara himself was chuckling behind his signature fan enjoying the whole scene from beside his new friend Starrk the very man who had put him into this situation.

Rukia walked up next to Ichigo, and said "BAKA why didn't you stop him he could have given us better information!" as she finished Rukia was yelling at him, smacked him on the head.

This caused all of the one piece characters to look at the bleach characters in confusion, and Robin to ask "Rukia san what are you talking about? How could Ichigo have stopped him he literally flew away?"

Looking back at them as she said "Ichigo may not look it, but he is fast as well as strong, and has beaten many of us who stand before you know in battle, and those here who could possibly beat him are few. Even with our reduced power I would say Ichigo may be the third second strongest, or maybe third, just depending on how focused he is."

"Well that's a discussion for a different time." Urahara said from behind his fan once again as he watched the reaction of his new companions. "Right now we should continue on our journey to Sky Island." He said as he started to point up.

This caught the rest of the crews attention as they all realized what he meant, and started to look for a way to get the rest of the way to Sky Island. "I have an idea!" Luffy cried which caused Bellamy and the bleach characters to all look up to see if their new captain had good ideas every once in a while. They were all disappointed though when Luffy finished by saying "Let's call that old knight guy back and ask him." As he said this he started to get another of his face splitting grins to grow across his face while bringing the whistle to his lips.

This was stopped however, when Chopper, Nami, and Bellamy all grabbed his face and started to stretch it so that he couldn't blow the whistle, as Nami screamed something about that only being for emergencies. Ichigo didn't really pay much attention to the situation after he was sure that the captain wouldn't be wasting the whistle. He started to listen to the rest of the crew to see what he could do, he was mildly surprised when he heard the first mate Zoro scream out "Let's just get the ship moving." As he finished saying this the bleach characters were surprised when the goofy crew actually got to work and started to sail the ship towards some clouds that Chopper had noticed earlier.

Ichigo helped do some of the sailing, but for the most part he realized he really didn't need to since the crew knew what to do without the help of the new people. Thus Ichigo now found himself watching as the whole crew sailed the ship with the precision of a crew five times their size. He found himself rather impressed with it all until they got to the cloud and he saw the captain attack the cloud. "Idiot" he muttered to himself as he watched to the fist fly towards the cloud. However everyone was surprised when they saw Luffy's punch fly away. Ichigo just stared at the cloud as if it was from a different world. Though, the irony of the situation was of course that he was the one from a different world.

As Ichigo continued to watch Luffy jumped off the boat and onto the cloud. As he did this every one of the bleach characters got ready to go save him from his fall. If they were surprised when the cloud bounced his fist away though, they were flabbergasted when they cloud acted like a trampoline, and bounced Luffy around like he weighed nothing. Ichigo found himself intrigued by the clouds so he too jumped out onto the cloud. He was followed shortly thereafter Uryu and Urahara who both just to know more about the substance that the cloud was made up of.

As they stood there Urahara started to take a few samples of the cloud for future study, While Uryu started to check it to see about reiatsu for the future. Ichigo though, was just there to help keep order incase Luffy weird as he is to did something stupid. He was not needed though for the only thing that happened was Nami yelling at the group which by this point also included chopper and Usopp to find a way around the clouds.

So Ichigo went and got back on the boat thinking he was not needed where he was. He watched for a short time as the group on the clouds shouted directions to those on the ship, he even watched as Bellamy did as he was told by Zoro and later Luffy when he got back on the boat.

All the while Ichigo was trying to get as close to Halibel as possible. When he finally managed to get within talking distance he realized he didn't know what to say, and started to silently panic. Until Halibel noticed him standing next to her that is.

Halibel couldn't believe it. Here she was enjoying her day; and then the very boy who had made her day so good when he had saved her a few hours ago was standing next to her. She was amazed "This couldn't get any better." She found herself thinking to herself, but then she realized that nothing was happening, "Crap she thought is this, what they call an awkward silence? Should I say something to him, or should I simply just let things stay as they are now?"

That's when Halibel thought "What if he's just staying near me in case I start something? Does that mean he doesn't trust me? If that's the case though then why did he save me? And why did he complement my eyes?"

As all of this was going through Halibel's head, Ichigo was also experiencing stressful thoughts, "What do I say?" he thought "How do I start a conversation with someone who's supposed to be my enemy? Do I complement her again? Or should I perhaps ask her on a date? No it's too soon for that. I can't just start a random conversation about the weather here I mean we're pretty much part of the weather here it seems. Crap what should I say? AAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!" Ichigo finished by screaming in his head, though he didn't realize it he also let out a growl of annoyance, as his trade mark scowl found its way to his face.

Seeing this Halibel thought she had done something wrong so she did the first thing that came to mind. She asked. "Have I done something to you?"

Looking up Ichigo gave her a confused look and asked "No why would you ask that?" All the while he was thinking to himself, "Well at least we're talking, that's a start."

Standing nearby Rukia smirked hearing the conversation from where she had been conversing with Urahara and Renji as to how best to get back to their world. "Hey don't worry." She called over to Halibel, "That's his regular face, he's not mad it's just how he normally looks."

Laughing Renji joined in with his own comment saying "Don't let his ugly mug get to you I know it could scare the soul king back into his realm, but hey don't worry too much he's too pathetic to back up his looks."

At this Ichigo jumped up and said "What was that pineapple head? I couldn't hear you clearly; I was too busy being amazed that you actually managed to use your brain long enough to formulate words."

"SCREW YOU ICHIGO!" before anyone could stop them both of them jumped at each other and started fighting.

Zoro and Sanji walked up to where the fight was taking place, and were surprised to see them fighting each other. "Huh, how pathetic!" Sanji said as he watched Ichigo kick Renji in the stomach, and get a fist to his jaw in response. Zoro who was standing beside him with his hands close to his swords, in case things got out of hand, couldn't help but remark to the cook "Like you could do any better swirly brow."

"WHAT WAS THAT MOSS HEAD?!" Sanji screamed at him as he turned and prepared to kick him.

"Oh I was just commenting on how badly your fighting technique was compared to these guys." Zoro said with a smirk on his face still watching the fight. That is until Sanji kicked him in the gut, just as Ichigo had done a few moments earlier; and with that it was on.

"Crap!" said Nami and Rukia both as they watched the fights progress "Now there's two more of them."

The fights finally stopped after a few seconds though when the ship finally found its way out of the clouds only to see a giant sign above a gat in front of them that read **Heaven's Gate**. Looking at it Urahara couldn't help but say "Well that was unexpected I really didn't expect that."

Usopp who was shaking as he looked at it said "T-t-th-that' bad omen. It's like we're going to die"

Chuckling to himself with a little bit of an evil grin on his face, Zoro said "Ya that was not expected, but maybe we're actually dead already?"

Sanji hearing this said "That would explain this weird world we're in right now."

Chopper hearing this just screamed in fear "WE'RE ALREADY DEAD!?"

Looking at them Grimmjow just responded in mild surprise. "Wait do you mean to say that you all aren't dead yet" he asked as he looked at them. This caught most of the crews attention as they all started to look at the newest members of the crew.

"No we're not dead." Robin said as she looked at them. "Are you?" she finished.

"Umm Ya most of us are." Grimmjow said as he pointed to the whole in his stomach that had been out for everyone to see since he had landed earlier.

It was then that the crew noticed this and they started to look at the newcomers with fear as Nami screamed out "YOU'RE DEAD! HOW THE HELL DID THAT HAPPEN? AND WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE?"

It was at this point that Urahara walked up to them and said "Well to tell you the truth we really don't know how we died, but like he said not all of us are dead with that he finished by pointing to Ichigo, Orihime, Chad, and Uryu "They are all alive for instance, though Kurasaki is in his spirit form." he finished this part by pointing to Ichigo. "We are soul reapers, or shinigami if you will." He said as he pointed to himself, Ichigo, Rukia, and Renji. "They are arrancars," he said pointing to Halibel, Starrk, Ulquiorra, and Grimmjow, "they used to be hollows which have been enemies of the shinigami since we were first created. Though now they have broken off parts of their mask for more power, and some of the abilities of us soul reapers. He is a Quincy," Urahara said as he pointed to Uryu, "and they are just gifted humans" Urahara finished by pointing to Orihime, and Chad.

Ad he finished Bellamy just looked at them and said "Well I won't lie I really didn't see that one coming." As he finished this most of the other straw hats looked at him, and some even started to agree with him.

However, before anything else could be said on the subject Luffy just got a dumb grin on his face as he said "Heaven… So funny we can finally get there through here." This caused everyone on the ship to just stop and stare at him, "Do you think that he even heard anything that was just said?" Bellamy asked as he stared at the idiot that had spared his life out of pity.


	4. Chapter 4 heaven

Luffy was not impressed. He had been happy when he found out he could bounce on the cloud earlier, however now he was kinda pissed. Standing in front of him and all of his crew and passengers was a little old lady with wings on her back. Now while this was cool enough for all of them, what she was saying was what was getting on everyone's nerves. She kept telling them that they had to pay to get into heaven. However, the price she was demanding was ridiculous. She kept demanding that they pay a billion Aigusu a piece.

Finally getting annoyed Nami said "We don't have any money, so do we have to turn around now that we have come all this way?"

The creepy old lady, who as Luffy had described quite accurately upon seeing her looked like an old dried up fruit candy, said " No you can go on up even if you don't have money. There are nineteen of you guy's right?"

"Yeah that's right how'd ya know that?" asked Renji quite impressed since four of those on the ship were in the ship rather than on the deck, and had been for quite some time.

His question was ignored by almost everyone as Nami said "Well if that is the case then we are going up." As she finished her statement two giant shrimp like creatures surfaced, and started to haul their ship up the river made of cloud beyond the gate leading up to heaven.

Below decks Chopper was showing Orihime the strawhats medical bay, and Usopp was showing Urahara the engineering room where he made most of his gadgets.

Urahara being who is was smiled when he realized that the room was really just a room to practice experiments of weapons that might be too dangerous to do anywhere else on the ship. With this thought on his mind he turned to Usopp, and said "I know this is mildly presumptuous, but do you think that I might be allowed to set up a lab here, from which I can test samples of the things that I find around your world, as well as weapons that I make?"

Usopp simply smiled a huge smile, as he replied "No, no not at all. So you're a fellow inventor as well huh, not to brag, but you know I once invented a machine that could take out a marine battleship."

Urahara simply looked at the young kid as he said that and replied with one simple question "How long did that take?" All the while he hid his growing amusement at the situation behind his fan.

Usopp being who he is of course came up with the most preposterous number he could think of at the time, and said "It took me thirty five years give or take a year."

Urahara just smiled behind his fan as he said "Oh really that's quite impressive. How old did you say you were again?"

Without thinking Usopp replied "I'm seventeen." As he finished though he realized his mistake and just stared at the man in front of him dumbfounded stupor at how ignorant he had just been made out to be. This of course had Urahara chuckling quietly to himself as he continued to walk around the little room, to see what all he would need to start conducting his experiments.

In the other room with Orihime, and Chopper, Orihime was currently squealing in a fan girlish type way as she sat there looking at how Chopper performed the maintenance of all of the equipment.

The Squeal of course got Chopper's attention as he turned to look at her with a worried expression on his face as he asked her "Are you all right? You didn't cut yourself on anything did you?"

Orihime blushed at her own stupidity, and said "No I am fine Chopper san." This was in her opinion one of the cutest tanuki's* she had ever seen. To see one speaking was also something that Orihime had dreamed about. Now that one was standing in front of her it was like one of her dreams had come true.

Chopper on the other hand was quite afraid of Orihime. Since they had picked up all of these new humans that he didn't know Chopper had been having a hard time staying near them, due to an uneasy feeling he got from the majority of them. This one in particular seemed to give off the most discomforting feeling of them all, and it was starting to get to Chopper. The only reason that she was even in his medical bay was because she had told him that she too was the healer on her little team. Thus he felt a small bit of kinship with the woman before him due to their common choice of profession.

"Besides" Chopper thought "Luffy seems to like all of them so they can't be bad people. Otherwise Luffy would have not let them get on board the ship. Even that Bellamy guy who he let beat him up the other day." Though, Chopper knew that Luffy wouldn't ever leave someone behind simply for such a stupid reason.

With that thought in mind Chopper said "Ok well this is it, so let's go back up to the top of the top deck, and see what's going on." With that done he then started to rush Orihime out of the room still not entirely trusting her around his equipment. Despite her claims at being a healer, Chopper still felt like she would break everything in the room if she tripped.

When they got to the top deck they found themselves to be one of the only ones left on board as everyone else had gotten off when they had come across the cloud island that they had been searching for the entire time. Chopper smiled he knew that when he joined the Strawhats he would have many exciting adventures. Alabasta had indeed been full of adventures, but this place promised to be even more fun than Alabasta, and now they had even more nakama to share the good times, even if the new nakama did seem to have some internal problems. Chopper could tell he smelled the fear, and determination on all of them. He had also seen the looks that they had been giving each other since they had joined the crew. With those thoughts in mind Chopper jumped towards the shore where he saw a commotion starting to take place.

On shore Starrk was observing quietly from the side as the strawhats met the sky island native, and her weird father who had crashed just coming to shore. Starrk was starting to feel tired, and wanted nothing more than to go somewhere quiet so that he could sleep in peace. He knew however, that this would most likely not happen anytime soon as he felt like things were about to start changing on this island, and not for the quieter.

Starrk had only felt this way twice before. The first time was just before he had met Aizen, and the second time was just before he was sent to go get that unique shinigami Urahara from the world of the living. To Starrk's chagrin he realized tha it would probably be like this the entire time they traveled with these Strawhat pirates. With this thought in mind Starrk turned to find the other Arrancar, and to make sure that they were all ok.

What he saw left him a little puzzled all the same. Since they had gotten here Starrk had noticed subtle changes in the other Arrancar. Ulquiorra for instance seemed more open, though that was only when he got close to the human woman. Halibel as well seemed different, she seemed kind of shy half the time, at first he had not understood what was going on, but then he had noticed it only seemed to happen when Ichigo was around. He didn't know what had caused this, but he was starting to wonder if the atmosphere here was affecting them in a way. Never before had he seen Arrancar show any emotion other than violence or fear. He decided he was going to bring up this little tidbit of information to the other Arrancar, and his new friend Urahara.

Starrk didn't necessarily like the way the man behaved around others, but Starrk knew better, he could see the hidden intelligence in the man's eyes. He could also, feel the power that resonated off of the man when he got serious. He had experienced the man's power before they had all been sent here. He also knew that he didn't want to fight the man when he got serious ever again. He didn't know if he could beat him if it came down to it. This made Starrk very careful about how aggressive he got against the soul reapers with them.

With that thought in mind Starrk started to look around for said man. However, Urahara didn't seem to be on the beach with everyone else. Closing his eyes Starrk started to feel for his spirit pressure hoping that it would be easy to find him. He was mildly surprised when he found Urahara to still be on the boat with a few others. Concentrating a little harder Starrk tried to find out who all was still there.

He wasn't surprised at what he found. With Urahara was the boats sniper, or so he claimed, Starrk was a little sketchy on the details, but he didn't know how someone could do much damage with a sling shot. The only other people on the ship were the little animal doctor and the girl Orihime. At this thought Starrk once again turned to his fellow espada. It was here that he noticed that while Grimmjow was paying attention for once, he was the only one as Halibel was off to the side by the substitute shinigami subtly giving him looks, and Ulquiorra who looked like he was listening had turned his body slightly too where he was facing the ship again. Starrk knew why as well.

With that thought in mind Starrk turned towards the ship and said "I'm goin back to take a nap." He didn't look over his shoulder as he took another step away before sonidoing back onto the deck of the ship.

As soon as his feet hit the deck he made his way to Urahara deciding that there was no time like the present to bring up this little development he had discovered.

Back on the beach Ichigo was staring at the captain as he was dragged back up onto the beach after having fallen off of the weird waver machine that the two sky island natives had shown them. He wasn't surprised when a few moments later the navigator Nami managed to actually sail the machine with very little problem.

Since they had gotten on the ship Ichigo had noticed how the crew seemed to be a group of very skilled individuals. Ichigo didn't personally know much about the stuff that went on around the ship, but he knew that everyone on the ship was incredibly skilled. The navigator for instance, had managed to keep the entire ship on the updraft stream thingy that had gotten them to the White Sea. Ichigo knew that no normal navigator would have been able to do that.

Knowing this Ichigo couldn't help but smile. He knew that they were all lucky to have actually been hit into one place, and in a place where there was such a skilled crew to help them in their journey's around the world.

It was also to luck that he accredited his chance to meet the arrancar Halibel. She was one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. Unfortunately he never knew what to say when he was around her. Even now he was a little nervous to speak out loud on the off chance that he might say something to offend her, or the other arrancar. Despite the fact that two of them had tried to kill him in their past, Ichigo knew that to insult them was to also, insult the beauty that even now was standing next to him as everyone sat around the skypieans home. Ichigo had even gotten to walk next to Halibel on the way up and now he was even standing next to her. Without even realizing it Ichigo smiled at his situation.

However, everyone else in the room noticed him smile especially the newly arrived Urahara who had just walked in to see the smile.

Next to him Halibel saw the smile, and couldn't help but think to herself "He has a very beautiful smile. I wonder why he never actually smiles when he could get any woman he wants simply by smiling at them." She didn't realize that his smile was his due to his joy at simply getting too stand next to her. She couldn't help the next thought that went through her head though as she wondered quietly to herself "What else can you do with that mouth of yours Ichigo?"

Everyone was drawn out of their contemplations though as Bellamy, and Sanji both looked out of the window and shouted "HEY NAMI IS GONE!"

Luffy being who he is was still whining about how she deserved to be lost for being able to do better than he had at riding the waver said "Just let her be she is probably fine."

This thought process was cut short though when the skypiean Conis said "Father this is troubling she may have gone to the forbidden place."

"Your right my daughter, this is troubling. However, she may not have gone there." Replied Conis' father.

With everyone still looking at them Bellamy asked "Where might she have gone that has you guys so worried?"

Looking back over at them Conis said "She may have gone to god's land."

_Tanuki- pretty much a raccoon._

_Sonidoe- a move similar to shunpo, and hirenkyaku, it is a way to move faster than running by forcing spiritual pressure into ones feet, thus forcing their feet to push them further distances faster. It is the same with the other two moves._

**There you have it everyone chapter three. I hope it's to everyone's liking. Also if you all like this story, you should check out my new story Lord of the One Piece. It's a crossover as you can tell can't wait to see what you all think of either story.**

**God bless everyone**


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